Disparo en Red [Cuban science fiction magazine]

Disparo en Red
began as a science fiction and fantasy e-zine freely distributed by
email from 2004 to 2008. Its focus was the publication of theoretical
articles on the genre, short stories, and short novels from classical
Anglo-Saxon science fiction (not published in Cuba), and it offered
space for the writings of young Cuban authors. By 2005, following the
publishing crisis in the 1990s, there was no room for new authors to
publish books. Neither were there many competitions that would include
publishing works in print. In addition, each genre magazine project was
rejected with the justification of the publishing crisis. The idea arose
to use email as a tool in our favor. In the fifty issues of Disparo en Red,
current international views about the genre with theoretical articles
from Cubans appeared. Previously unpublished texts were published that
subsequently became contest winners and were published in print. Cuban
fans could also read classics from Robert Heinlein, William Gibson or
Phillip K. Dick. Most important, however, was learning not to depend on
one newsletter to read about the genre. Novels in digital format began
to be distributed in an unofficial manner and as a result the followers
of this genre had a more complete culture of science fiction. Given
that in Cuba much science fiction coming from socialist countries is
published but little science fiction from the west, it also served to
improve and update concepts about the genre. Most importantly, it
served as a precursor to other newsletters, digital magazines, blogs and
websites from the island. In publishing the fiftieth issue the authors
believe they have in a small way propelled Cuban science fiction
forward. Therefore at that time we decided to bring the project to a
close and to move forward to new ideas.
- -Eric Mota, Disparo en Red editor